Knights at the Bookshelf

By Sir Knight George L. Marshall, Jr., PGC, KGT

Roger Crowley, The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades, Basic Books, 2019, Hardbound, 254 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5416-9734-8.

Ihad the pleasure of reading and reviewing one of Mr. Crowley’s books, Empires of the Sea, which review appeared in the August 2011 issue of this magazine. As I thoroughly enjoyed his very readable, yet well-researched style, I was anxious to acquire the present book when I read of its imminent publication in the BBC History Magazine, to which I subscribe, and my expectations were not disappointed.

The May 1291 siege of Acre was the death knell of the Christian Crusades — the final bloody battle for the Holy Land. After a desperate six weeks, the beleaguered city and its citadels were overrun by the Mamluks, bringing an end to Christendom’s two-hundred-year tenure in Outremer.

In this book, Mr. Crowley presents a vigorous narrative of the events which led up to the siege and then a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the final climactic battle. Beginning with Louis IX’s failed crusade of 1249-50, he examines the rise of the Mamluks in Egypt and their conquests under the sultans Baybars, Qalawun, and al-Khalil in the Holy Land leading up to the siege of Acre. Drawing on contemporary Arabic, French, and Latin primary sources throughout the book, he eventually sets the stage for the final battle with a detailed description of the implements used in siege warfare by both sides and by taking us on a tour of ancient Acre and its fortifications.

The siege and battle are related in vivid and often bloody detail, with accounts largely drawn from the eyewitness notes of the anonymous “Templar of Tyre” as related in the Les Gestes des Chiprois. Mr. Crowley presents an extraordinary picture of the conflict, notable for its individual heroism and savage slaughter on both sides. He 34 october 2020

also presents in detail the valiant conduct of the Templars and Hospitallers in their attempts to defend the city.

The last two chapters serve as an epilogue, describing the fortunes and fates of the major participants on both sides as well as that of the physical structures of the city of Acre itself.

The book has an extensive bibliography of both contemporary and modern sources and footnotes where appropriate. It is well-written, certainly not dry and tedious, and should be of interest to every Sir Knight who has an interest in the era of the Crusades.

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